College Commons

This episode of the College Commons Podcast explores how music can be a powerful tool for bringing people together, and examines empathy's role in the core of Judaism. Senior Rabbi at Stephen Wise Temple, Yoshi Zweiback was born in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and raised in Omaha, Nebraska. He graduated from Princeton University in 1991 and was ordained as a Rabbi by the Hebrew Union College Jewish Institute of Religion in 1998. He trained as a Jewish Educator at HUC’s Los Angeles campus, where he received a M.A. in Jewish Education. He served Congregation Beth Am in Los Altos Hills, California, as Rabbi and educator for eleven years, until moving to Israel with his family in 2009 to become the Director of HUC’s Year-in-Israel program. In addition to overall management of the graduate level program, he served as an instructor in Jewish Liturgy. Rabbi Zweiback is a lecturer at Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion in Los Angeles, and a Senior Rabbinic Fellow of the Shalom Hartman Institute in J

Is the Two-State Solution for Israel and Palestine the best solution for a persistent conflict? David Makovsky is the Ziegler distinguished fellow at The Washington Institute and director of the Project on the Middle East Peace Process. He is also an adjunct professor in Middle East studies at Johns Hopkins University's Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). In 2013-2014, he worked in the Office of the U.S. Secretary of State, serving as a senior advisor to the Special Envoy for Israeli-Palestinian Negotiations. Author of numerous Washington Institute monographs and essays on issues related to the Middle East Peace Process and the Arab-Israeli conflict, he is also coauthor, with Dennis Ross, of the 2009 Washington Post bestseller Myths, Illusions, and Peace: Finding a New Direction for America in the Middle East (Viking/Penguin). His 2017 interactive mapping project, "Settlements and Solutions," is designed to help users discover for themselves whether a two-state solution is stil

How can we move past fear to find respect and acceptance in our differences? And what does it mean to think about others when we have power? Dr. Marcie Lenk has devoted her intellectual life and career to organizing educational programs and teaching Jews and Christians (and people of other faiths) to understand and appreciate the basic texts, ideas, history and faith of the other. She lives in Jerusalem, where she currently serves as the Academic Director of Bat Kol: Christian Institute for Jewish Studies. She teaches patristics at the Studium Theologicum Salesianum at Ratisbonne Monastery, and Jewish and Christian texts at Ecce Homo Convent, and the Tantur Ecumenical Institute. For the last six years she served as director of Christian leadership programs at the Shalom Hartman Institute. She received her Ph.D. at Harvard University in 2010 with a dissertation entitled, The Apostolic Constitutions: Judaism and Anti-Judaism in the Construction of Christianity, and earned an M.T.S. from Harvard Divinity Sch

How has American Judaism developed in the context of American Protestantism, and what have we learned from one another? Benjamin Sommer is Professor of Bible at the Jewish Theological Seminary. The Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz described Sommer as “a traditionalist and yet an iconoclast – he shatters idols and prejudices in order to nurture Jewish tradition and its applicability today” and characterized his thought as “a synthesis of intellectual acuity, clarity, deep knowledge of classical Jewish texts along with contemporary Christian theology and ancient Near Eastern literature.” His book, Revelation and Authority: Sinai in Jewish Scripture and Tradition, received the Goldstein-Goren Prize in Jewish thought for 2014–2016 and was a finalist for a National Jewish Book Award. Publishers Weekly selected it as a “recommended book” in religion, describing it as a “groundbreaking work . . . clearly written and broad in application.” His earlier books, The Bodies of God and the World of Ancient Israel and A Prophet

Examining the special relationship American Jews have had with the law, and tackling some of the thorniest controversies about the separation of Church and State. Dahlia Lithwick is a senior editor at Slate, and in that capacity, has been writing their "Supreme Court Dispatches" and "Jurisprudence" columns since 1999. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, Harper’s, The New Yorker, The Washington Post, The New Republic, and Commentary, among other places. She is host of Amicus, Slate’s award-winning biweekly podcast about the law and the Supreme Court. She was Newsweek’s legal columnist from 2008 until 2011. In 2018 Lithwick received the American Constitution Society’s Progressive Champion Award, the Hillman Prize for Opinion and Analysis, and was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 2017, Lithwick was the recipient of a Golden Pen Award from the Legal Writing Institute; the Virginia Bar Association’s award for Excellence in Legal Journalism; and the 2017 award for Outstanding

In order to uncover the power and mystery of the Bible, we have to read it first. In this episode of the College Commons Podcast, learn some surprising and fascinating places where you can start. Marc Brettler is the Bernice and Morton Lerner Professor of Jewish Studies in the Department of Religious Studies at Duke University. He has also taught at Brandeis University, Yale University, Brown University, Wellesley College and Middlebury College. His has written God is King, The Creation of History in Ancient Israel, The Book of Judges, and Biblical Hebrew for Students of Modern Israeli Hebrew. He is co-author of The Bible and the Believer, and co-editor of the New Oxford Annotated Bible, The Jewish Study Bible, and The Jewish Annotated New Testament, and has contributed to all ten volumes of My People’s Prayer Book. In 2017, he was one of 100 scholars and leaders asked to participate in the “American Values Religious Voices” project. He is currently at work on part of Psalms commentary for JPS, a book

A frank and lively conversation between unlikely partners in the work of religious thinking and living. Gregory Mobley is Visiting Professor of Hebrew Bible and Congressional Studies at Yale Divinity School. Previously he taught at Union Theological Seminary (NY) and Andover Newton Theological School in the Boston area. His books in Hebrew Bible include The Return of the Chaos Monsters—and Other Backstories of the Bible (2012) and The Empty Men: The Heroic Tradition of Ancient Israel (2005). Active in Interfaith Learning, he is a co-editor (with Or Rose and Jennifer Peace) of My Neighbor’s Faith: Stories of Interreligious Encounter, Growth, and Transformation (2012).

Religion and the religious experience through the lens of social sciences and evolutionary biology. Dr. Melvin Konner, MD, Ph.D. is Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor at Emory University, where he teaches Anthropology, Neuroscience and Behavioral Biology, and Jewish Studies. He attended Brooklyn College, CUNY, and his MD and PhD are from Harvard. Konner's books include: Unsettled: An Anthropology of the Jews and The Jewish Body (Nextbook “Jewish Encounters”; An American Library Association Brody Award “Honor Book”), The Tangled Wing: Biological Constraints on the Human Spirit; Becoming a Doctor; The Evolution of Childhood (one of The Atlantic’s Five Best Books of 2010), Women After All: Sex, Evolution, and the End of Male Supremacy, among other books. In addition to his many books, Konner has had regular columns in The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, and has written for Newsweek, The Forward, Nature, Science and The New England Journal of Medicine. He has also translated the African poems of the

With a growing divide between Israeli Jews and American Jews, can we utilize humor to find something compelling and deep about our shared experience? Natalie Marcus is a highly-acclaimed, award-winning, screenwriter based in Tel Aviv. For the past 10 years, Marcus has been in charge of some of Israel's top-rated shows. She is the creator and head writer of the acclaimed historically-themed sketch show, The Jews are Coming, winner of the Israeli Academy Award for the best entertainment show. Marcus is also the creator and head writer of the TV show, Crowded, that won the "Best Kids' Comedy" award in the Israeli Kid's Choice Awards and a special award for contribution to the public discussion from the Minister of Communication.  Marcus is currently writing and show running a new comedy called The Estate for Keshet 12, due to air in 2019, as well as writing a new fourth season of The Jews are Coming. Marcus teaches comedy writing and lectures about writing and Jewish history all over the world.  She lives in

Our brains are not scientists, they’re lawyers. So, how do we view truth and evidence from a scientific perspective? Rabbi Geoffrey A. Mitelman is the Founding Director of Sinai and Synapses, an organization that bridges the scientific and religious worlds, and is being incubated at Clal – The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership. His work has been supported by the John Templeton Foundation, Emanuel J. Friedman Philanthropies, and the Lucius N. Littauer Foundation, and his writings about the intersection of religion and science have been published in the books Seven Days, Many Voices and A Life of Meaning (both published by the CCAR press), as well as on The Huffington Post, Nautilus, Orbiter, Science and Religion Today, Jewish Telegraphic Agency, and My Jewish Learning. He has been an adjunct professor at both the Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion and the Academy for Jewish Religion, and is an internationally sought-out teacher, presenter, and scholar-in-residence. He was o

Are we engaging religious tradition to explore pathways toward holiness and to illuminate human possibility—or are we using it as a tool to do the opposite? Rabbi Sharon Brous is a leading voice in reanimating religious life in America, working to develop a spiritual roadmap for soulful, multi-faith justice work in Los Angeles and around the country. Brous is the senior and founding rabbi of IKAR, which was started in 2004 and has become a model for Jewish revitalization in the US and beyond. With the goal of reinvigorating Jewish practice and inspiring people of faith to reclaim a moral and prophetic voice, IKAR quickly became one of the fastest growing and most influential Jewish congregations in the country. Today it is credited with sparking a rethinking of religious life in a time of unprecedented disaffection and declining affiliation. Brous’s 2016 TED talk, “Reclaiming Religion,” has been viewed by more than 1.3 million people and translated into 20 languages. In 2013, she blessed President Obama an

Dr. Weiss' art and life are deeply grounded in Israel where she explores themes of femininity, holiness and Judaism. Dr. Ruhama Weiss is Parallel Associate Professor of Talmud and Spiritual Care, and Director of the Blaustein Center for Pastoral Care & Counseling, on the Jerusalem campus of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion. Dr. Weiss is also a poet, artist, and public intellectual.

From peace within to the glass ceiling, Rabbi Rabbi Amy Eilberg leads a thoughtful discussion on a life of service. Rabbi Amy Eilberg is the first woman ordained as a Conservative rabbi by the Jewish Theological Seminary of America. She serves as the Coordinator of Jewish Engagement for Faith in Action Bay Area, a multi-faith, multi-racial social justice organization in the San Francisco Bay Area. She previously served as the director of the Pardes Rodef Shalom (Pursuer of Peace) Communities Program, teaching Jewish civil discourse to rabbis, synagogues and Jewish organizations. Rabbi Eilberg also serves as a spiritual director and interfaith activist. Her book, From Enemy to Friend: Jewish Wisdom and the Pursuit of Peace, was published by Orbis Books in March 2014. She received her Doctor of Ministry degree from United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities in 2016.

Rabbi David Saperstein discusses religious freedom, the Supreme Court, civil rights, the Religious Action Center and the midterms. Rabbi David Saperstein is the Director Emeritus, Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism and the Senior Advisor to the URJ for Policy and Strategy. Designated by Newsweek Magazine as the most influential rabbi in America and by the Washington Post as the “quintessential religious lobbyist on Capitol Hill,” David Saperstein, for decades, directed the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, representing the Reform Jewish Movement, the largest segment of American Jewry, to Congress and the Administration. For over two years (through Jan. 2017), Rabbi Saperstein served our nation as the U.S. Ambassador at Large for International Religious Freedom, carrying out his responsibilities as the country’s chief diplomat on religious freedom issues. Also an attorney, he taught seminars on Church –State law and Jewish Law for 35 years at Georgetown University Law Center. During h

In this thoughtful conversation, Imam Abdullah Antepli examines the parallels and differences between Muslim and Jewish experiences in America. Imam Antepli completed his basic training and education in his native Turkey. From 1996-2003 he worked on a variety of faith-based humanitarian and relief projects in Myanmar (Burma) and Malaysia with the Association of Social and Economic Solidarity with Pacific Countries. He is the founder and executive board member of the Association of College Muslim Chaplains (ACMC) and a board member of the Association for College and University Religious Affairs (ACURA). From 2003 to 2005 he served as the first Muslim chaplain at Wesleyan University. He then moved to Hartford Seminary in Connecticut, where he was the associate director of the Islamic Chaplaincy Program & Interfaith Relations, as well as an adjunct faculty member. He previously served as Duke University first Muslim chaplain from July 2008 to 2014. In his current work at Duke, Antepli engages students, fa

What is the power of questions? Rabbi Feigelson discusses how the right kind of questions can unlock conversation and community. Rabbi Joshua Feigelson is the Dean of Students at the University of Chicago Divinity School. Prior to joining the Divinity School, Feigelson founded and served as Executive Director of Ask Big Questions, a social startup venture of Hillel International dedicated to improving civic learning and engagement through reflective conversations about questions that matter to all human beings. Under Feigelson’s leadership, the Ask Big Questions initiative helped over 300,000 people on 175 college campuses and in dozens of communities around the world to connect, understand, and trust one another, and won the inaugural Lippman-Kanfer Prize for Applied Jewish Wisdom. From 2005-2011, Feigelson served as Campus Rabbi at Northwestern University Hillel, where he was named one of the top 12 people to know on campus by the Daily Northwestern. While at Northwestern, Feigelson earned a PhD in Relig

Rabbi Green discusses Neo-Hasidism, Kabbalah, the Zohar and the search for a contemporary Judaism. Dr. Arthur Green was the founding dean and is currently rector of the Rabbinical School and Irving Brudnick Professor of Jewish Philosophy and Religion at Hebrew College. He is Professor Emeritus at Brandeis University, where he occupied the distinguished Philip W. Lown Professorship of Jewish Thought. He is both a historian of Jewish religion and a theologian; his work seeks to form a bridge between these two distinct fields of endeavor. Educated at Brandeis University and the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, where he received rabbinic ordination, Dr. Green studied with such important teachers as Alexander Altmann, Nahum N. Glatzer, and Abraham Joshua Heschel, of blessed memory. He has taught Jewish mysticism, Hasidism, and theology to several generations of students at the University of Pennsylvania, the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College (where he served as both Dean and President), Brandeis, and n

Cantor Dreskin takes us under the hood of her cantorial craft in this wide-ranging conversation on liturgy, country music, prayer and Reform Judaism. Cantor Ellen Dreskin is an innovative leader in the liberal Jewish movement. Her expertise extends from music to synagogue transformation, from experiential education to enlivened liturgy and mysticism. She has worked as a scholar-in-residence with Jews of all denominations, and has served as Cantor and Educator for congregations in Cleveland and New York. She consults with rabbis and cantors across the country, and has been an online educator for both Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion and for the Union for Reform Judaism. Ellen is a graduate of HUC-JIR, has a Master’s Degree in Jewish Communal Service from Brandeis University, and is proud to have received her honorary Doctorate of Music from Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion in 2011. She is a synagogue consultant and clergy coach in the areas of liturgical innovation, pe

Rabbi Hartman explores the meaning of boundaries and their effect on Jewish identity in time and space. Rabbi Dr. Donniel Hartman is President of the Shalom Hartman Institute and holds the Richard and Sylvia Kaufman Family David Hartman Chair. He is author of the highly regarded 2016 book, "Putting God Second: How to Save Religion from Itself." Rabbi Hartman is the founder of some of the most extensive education, training, and enrichment programs for scholars, educators, rabbis, and religious and lay leaders in Israel and North America. He is a prominent essayist, blogger, and lecturer on issues of Israeli politics, policy, Judaism, and the Jewish community. He has a Ph.D. in Jewish philosophy from Hebrew University, an M.A. in political philosophy from New York University, an M.A. in religion from Temple University, and Rabbinic ordination from the Shalom Hartman Institute.

David Fleischer and volunteers engage in thoughtful conversations with voters as way to help them reflect on their cruelest opinions and consider revising them. Dave Fleischer has directed the Leadership LAB of the Los Angeles LGBT Center since 2010. Before that, he created and ran the national training program of the Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund (1993-98) and then the organizing and training department of the organization now known as the National LGBTQ Task Force (1999-2006) before launching the national LGBT mentoring work that gave birth to the LAB. Fleischer is also the author of The Prop 8 Report, a data-driven evaluation of why we lost Prop 8 (on-line at Prop 8 Report). Fleischer has trained organizers, candidates, and campaign managers for more than thirty years.